Hoping to break the cycle

Twelve-year-old Aarti Kumari combs her hair at the Kasturba Gandhi Girls School.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

May 13, 2016 4:34 PM PT

For many low-caste girls and women from nomadic cultures in India, prostitution is commonly passed down from mother to daughter and the act of pimping from father to son for survival. But along the Indo-Nepal border of Bihar – one of the poorest districts in India – mothers trapped in a life of prostitution campaigned with an anti-sex-trafficking NGO, Apne Aap, for a boarding school to protect their daughters from the same fate. The Kasturba Gandhi Girls School houses some 100 girls - many who are the first in their community to learn to read and write. They are admitted to the school at age nine - just when a trafficker is likely to prey upon them. The education helps break the cycle of intergenerational prostitution and curb their selling as child brides. Yet the girls are still vulnerable to sex traffickers who routinely prowl the outside of the school hoping to abduct them into a life of prostitution. These young girls live a life of peril.

The girls and their math teacher, Shruti Priya, observe the Durga Puja festival that honors the victory of Goddess Durga over the evil buffalo -- hence the victory of good over evil.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Neelam and Urmila, both 14, pass the time playing during the high holiday season. The girls overcome caste stigma by forming friendships that take away the boundaries of caste and class.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

The school girls play a game of kabaddi during recess.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

The girls get three meals a day at the boarding school.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

The girls work on homework.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

The girls are still vulnerable to sex traffickers who routinely prowl the outside of the school hoping to abduct them into a life of prostitution. Here two young school girls listen to men call out to them from the field, trying to get their attention.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

All the girls supported by Apne Aap are given photo identification to show that they are members of the group. This serves as protection when a trafficker accosts her, because he immediately knows that Apne Aap staff will follow up if she goes missing.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

The young girls develop strong bonds at the boarding school and have the opportunity to act carefree, a luxury most do not have in their communities.

(Barbara Davidson/The Los Angeles Times Staff / )

The girls pray together inside their communal bedroom that sleeps 20 during the five holy days of Durga Puja.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

A view from the roof of the boarding school, situated not from from the Indo-Nepal border town of Bihar, one of the poorest districts in India.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Twelve-year-old Karishma enjoys a shy moment laughing with her friends inside the boarding school, where she lives with some other 100 girls. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times )

Rukhsar Khatun has her hair combed by a schoolmate. Rukhsar attends the school with her sister Shahana, not pictured. Their father had forced his two other daughters into prostitution, and he pulled Rukhsar and Shahana out of the school in 2011, beating their mother when she protested. Their mother ran away with the girls so she could return them to the school and now lives in a secret location.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

The girls get three meals a day at the border school, which is also supported by the local government. They are served food in shifts so as to accommodate all the children fairly.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Sabhyata, 12, sleeps after reading a book.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

Thousands of young girls in India and Nepal are sold for sex and imprisoned in urban brothels in Kolkata, New Delhi and Bombay. The girls thrive when given an education.

(Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)